Margarita Skull Cakes
Long time no blog! What has it been? 5+ months?! I apologize for the long absence, but between my trip to Germany back in May, training a new team at work, moving to a new (and much larger!) apartment at the beginning of August, and multiple overseas business trips this autumn, I have hardly had any time at all to bake, let a lone blog about it. To be honest, things haven’t really calmed down all that much on the day job front, but October is already upon us and it would be a complete waste to let my beloved Halloween season go by without baking up some spooks. Luckily, one of my spooky-inclined friends has a mid-October birthday, giving me the perfect opportunity to break in my new mini skull cake pan and kick-off the Halloween baking season in style. The tequila and lime flavors I decided to go with for these margarita-inspired cakes may be a bit of a departure from the usual pumpkin-y, spicy fall flavors, but the bright flavor of lime with a tequila kick is a refreshing treat any time of year, so I definitely recommend these margarita skulls to anyone looking to make something a little different this Halloween★[Continue Reading/続きを読む]
Pikachu Pumpkin Rum Cakes
The Pokemon craze may be a source of late 90s-early 2000s nostalgia in America, but here in Japan it is still alive and well, and you can find a massive variety of Pokemon products from plush toys to dishes and tablewear all over the place. In fact, a couple of months ago I saw a silicon pan for making cute little Pikachu-shaped cakes in store and immediately snapped it up knowing that I would undoubtedly find myself baking for Pokemon fan one of these days. And sure enough, my Pokemon-obsessed friend’s birthday came up a couple of weeks ago so it was the perfect excuse not only to try out my Pikachu pan, but also to try out a pumpkin rum came recipe that I had been wanting to make.[Continue Reading/続きを読む]
Pumpkin Spice Halloween Cookies
It’s finally October here in Tokyo and not only is it finally not blistering hot, but it’s also finally Halloween season–the best time for baking. The time when I can make all the bat and ghost-shaped, pumpkin-flavored things I want and no one bats an eyelash. And what better way to kick off the Halloween season but with some cut-out Halloween cookies? It’s become sort of a yearly tradition for me to make cut-out Halloween cookies and I made some more this year, but I decided to swap my usual sugar cookie recipe for pumpkin spice this year. [Continue Reading/続きを読む]